(It.: ‘first man’).
The leading male part in an opera or on the roster of an opera company. In the 18th century, the term developed alongside Prima donna. By convention the primo uomo was a young prince or leading rebel, and almost invariably a lover, but not necessarily the title role, which might be a ruler or tyrant. For example, in Handel's Tamerlano (1724), the leading castrato Senesino played the young lover's role of Andronico and the second castrato took the title role. The impresario Luca Casimiro degli Albizzi wrote in 1740, ‘Do not hire any of the other singers until you have signed the prima donna and the primo uomo; it is around them that the company is built’ (W. Holmes: Opera Observed: Views of a Florentine Impresario in the Early Eighteenth Century, 1993, p.103). Leading casatratos were often identified by vocal range rather than by role. In 1679, Alessandro Stradella wrote of an opera company in Genoa, ‘The primo soprano is Signor Marcantonio Orrigoni … who sings most well, is not too favoured in voice, but is nevertheless quite liked; and what is admired more, acted and acts like an angel of paradise. The secondo soprano is Signor Francesco Rossi of Rome, who was not liked and because of this we made him sing little, so that it didn't matter much’ (C. Gianturco: Alessandro Stradella (1639–1682): his Life and Music, 1994, p.288). In 18th-century opera seria, the role of primo uomo was generally assigned to a castrato, but on occasion to a woman (see Breeches part and Travesty). With the decline of the operatic castrato after 1800 the leading male role of the lover or young rebel came to be cast first as a woman (see Primo musico) and thereafter (around 1850) as a tenor. Riemann (Musik-Lexicon, 1882) defines ‘primo uomo’ as ‘first tenor’.
ELLEN T. HARRIS